40th Chernobyl disaster anniversary: Zelenskyy accuses Russia of committing ‘nuclear terrorism’, others
As Ukraine marks the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster, its president Volodmyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of committing “nuclear terrorism” by regularly flying attack drones over the
As Ukraine marks the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster, its president Volodmyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of committing “nuclear terrorism” by regularly flying attack drones over the site.
Zelenskyy took to social media to mark the anniversary, and to say that through Russia’s invasion of Ukraine it was, “again bringing the world to the brink of a man-made disaster”.
He noted that drones fly regularly over Chernobyl, with one even hitting its protective shell last year. “The world must not allow this nuclear terrorism to continue, and the best way is to force Russia to stop its reckless attacks,” he added.
People hold candles in front of a radiation hazard symbol at a memorial dedicated to firefighters and workers who died after the 1986 Chornoby, Ukraine.
Meanwhile, people in the northern Ukrainian city of Slavutych gathered for a midnight commemoration on Saturday to honour those whose mission was to clean up after the disaster, as well as to remember all those killed in the accident.
Following the 1986 disaster, soldiers, firefighters, miners, medics and engineers, were summoned from across the Soviet Union. Over the course of four years, 600,000 people joined the cleanup, exposing themselves to high levels of radiation.
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The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant at 01:23 am on 26 April 1986 resulted in the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history.
It occured due to a human error during a safety test, which led to the explosion in reactor number four at the nuclear plant in northern Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. The explosion sent radioactive smoke into the atmosphere, and nuclear fuel burned for more than 10 days.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) determined the main cause of the disaster was “severe deficiencies in the design of the reactor and the shutdown system”, combined with “violation” of operation procedures.
Then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev did not publicly acknowledge the accident until 14 May.
A UN report from 2005 estimated that the number of deaths due to radiation exposure in the three worst affected countries stood at 4,000. A 2006 Greenpeace report put the number at nearly 100,000 deaths.
